


"Studying"

by boyslushie



Series: adventures in gay alien relationships featuring YOU! [1]
Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Angst, Crushes, Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M, Pining, male reader - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-10-22 20:36:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10704624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boyslushie/pseuds/boyslushie
Summary: Zim invites you to study at his house, but with alien accusations and his odd behavior, how are you to know what he's really up to?





	"Studying"

**Author's Note:**

> hi i'm ross, i'm gay for an alien and i wrote this mostly for myself. i'm not actually that sorry.

You had only wanted a simple day, you had woken up earlier than necessary, unable to return to the comforting realm of sleep that morning, leaving you exhausted and praying for the day to just go smoothly, which you continue to do after already having to walk through the rain after missing the bus. 

You looked down the horizontal aisle of lined desks to find that green kid… Zim, glaring down the aisle, you turned your head to the left to see Dib glaring right back at him. God damn these two, do they ever stop fighting? Your thought bubble pops the moment you hear Ms. Bitters bark out your name, asking you the answer to an inconceivably difficult math equation she had chalked up on the board. Why does anybody ever say that Senior Year is easy? You growl quietly and get up, trying to solve it but desperately making a fool of yourself. God you hate math.

“Would anybody like to come up and help him?" Ms. Bitters hisses at the class. Most students shrink back in horror, but both Dib and Zim’s hands shoot up simultaneously. _Everything_ they do is a competition. Ms. Bitters picks Zim, who walks up behind you and gently slips the chalk out of your hand with a smug smile that, unless you were hallucinating, turns just a bit soft when you look at him. You step back curiously, trying to control the heat in your cheeks as he solves the equation in a matter of seconds. You’re as impressed as you are confused. You both go back to your seats as the teacher erases the sequence of numerical expressions, making way for another problem to be written. 

“Hey, Zim. How’d you get so good at math?” You ask, trying to make small talk in the minutes before lunch. He shrugs and gives you a neutral expression.

“Oh, you know…” he says, not actually answering. Sometimes you wonder if Dib’s extra terrestrial accusations are true. Speaking of Dib, you turn to look at him, he looks so bored, Ms. Bitters completely ignoring his raised hand, pleading to answer just _one_ equation. 

“Dib, buddy. You alright?” You ask quietly and he slams his head down on the desk, Ms. Bitters having picked yet another student. 

“Yeah, there’s just _nothing_ to do today, it’s so boring.” He complains, shifting his head to look at you, you shrug and go back to doodling in your notebook, half noticing that you’re sketching Zim again. Though you’d never really admit it, you’ve had a growing crush on him since you got to the school two weeks ago, and the green skinned boy seems to have growing curiosity towards you, but you can never quite be sure with him. You glance out of the corner of your eye to see Zim staring at the paper, his mouth forming a tiny “o” shape. You blush and turn back to your sketch. Dib stares at you suspiciously, from what you’ve heard whispered around the classroom, he’s been talking about the possibility of you being an alien too, sent to help Zim on his mission to “destroy earth”. You shake your head. Suddenly, the bell rings loudly and the kids all jump up out of their seats, flooding towards the door in a mass. You take your time putting away your books before hoisting your backpack on your shoulders. As usual, the last three out of the classroom are you, Zim and Dib, the pair arguing over… shrimp? Who knows really.  
“Well listen you… alien…. Thingy! Shrimp aren’t meant to be used for shoes! And- Oh! Would you look at that, Zim? It’s still raining! Good luck getting to the cafeteria!” Dib yells, running off through the rain. Zim shivers and stands under the playground awning sullenly. Luckily you brought your favorite umbrella that morning, you unclip it from your bag strap and pop it open, the metal “shink!” of the handle making Zim jump a little. You notice this and walk over to him.

“I don’t know what your thing about rain is, but you can walk with me if you want, I brought this so you’ll be ok.” You offer politely. He looks at you with wide eyes, his face one of someone unused to random acts of kindness.

“Th-thank…. You? Did i say that right?” He asks in an unusually quiet voice. You blush and nod, a small smile on your lips. He blushes too, quickly whipping his head away and glaring harshly.

“ONWARDS!!! To the cafeteria.” He yells, you sink into a comfortable smile and start the short walk there, making sure the umbrella is covering Zim the whole way. You part ways as he gets in line for whatever slop they’re serving for lunch today, and you go to sit at an empty table with your bagged lunch. You’d sit with Dib, but Gaz seems a bit pissed at him, so you instead hole up alone at the corner of the room. 

You’re midway through your sandwich when you hear a set of footsteps walking up behind you. The next thing you see is Zim seating himself beside you, not looking at you, but picking at his food quietly. You don’t want to make things weird so you continue eating. 

“Hey… you wanna come over and… read books….. STUDY! You wanna come over to my place and study after school…..?” He asks _mostly_ quietly. You blush and turn your head for a moment before nodding.

“Yeah… yeah I think I’d like that.” you tell him. You glance to the other side of the room where Dib is eyeing the two of you suspiciously. You grimace and turn back to your food silently, grateful for Zim’s company, strange as it may be. His accusations of Zim being an alien swim through your mind again, and you wonder what exactly will happen at his house. You shake your head a bit and focus back on your lunch. Zim gets up minutes later to go yell at Dib, business as usual you suppose. Before you know it, the bell rings for you all to go back to class, and you skip through another three hours of class, anxiously and excitedly. 

Soon enough, the day is over, the rain has slowed to sprinkling, and Zim is back behind the rest of the class, waiting for you. Dib heads out the door before you, glaring behind him. 

“HUMAN FIL- I mean, (name)! Are you ready to see my AMAZINGLY AWESOME home?” He asks loudly. You crack a grin and take his hand carefully. He doesn’t shy away, and instead starts dragging you forward, out of the school building. He doesn’t realize it’s still sprinkling and walks right out into the wet weather. 

“Wait, Zim y-”

“AUGHHHAHHHGGGH!!!! IT BURNS!!! THE…. WETNESS!!!” He screeches, running back towards you. You open your umbrella and pull him close under your arm and start walking.

“Zim are you alright? Just calm down a bit and give me directions, it’ll be ok.” You coo, trying to get him to feel better. There are visible burns where the water made contact with his green tinted skin. 

“Take a left… ow. Yeah this street.” He points you down the road.

Ten minutes of guiding later, you made it to his front door, gnomes shifting as if watching your every step… maybe they were.You take in the sight of his small green mismatched house… man, everything about Zim really was weird as all hell. Maybe not an alien, but it wouldn’t be that far off. You let him take the umbrella out of your hand and walk up to the door. He opens it to be greeted by two very… mechanical looking parents.

“Welcome home, Son!” They call out as you brush past them. You only see a glimpse of Zim’s weird green dog before he pounces on you, knocking you over and standing on top of you.

“Hi there new friend!!!” he yells, making you flinch. You reach up to pet him, he nudges his head up into your hand playfully, accidentally lifting his… face… off? You lift it up higher only to find out that it’s a hood over his robot form. You knew he was too strange to be a normal dog, after all, what dogs are green, talking, unblinking and have a giant zipper down their front. You gasp, but you’re really not all that surprised. You pat the robot on the head gently and pick him up, setting down as gently as you could. Jesus, that is one heavy robot. 

“GIR! Where did y- oh right you’re here. GI- GIR?! WHERE IS YOUR COSTUME… I MEAN, AHH, WEIRD ROBOT IN MY HOUSE!!! I AM NORMAL!” Zim screamed in rapid succession, trying to backtrack at every turn. You laugh.

“Relax Zim, it was pretty obvious he wasn’t a real dog. But…” You hesitate, wondering if you really want to find out whether Zim really is an alien or not. Before you can stop yourself, the words are already coming out of your mouth. 

“If he’s not what he seemed to be… does that mean… you’re not either?” You question, your heart pounding heavily in your chest. Zim stares at you, and you can almost see the gears turning in his head as he weighs his options. He closes his eyes and lifts his chin, looking as unperturbed as if you had just asked him about his favorite kind of grass. 

“Of course not, I am human. You’ve been listening to that disgusting Dib human too much.” He shook off the comment. You looked disappointed at his clear distrust, but it’s not like there’s much you can do. You give a concerned glance as he offer’s you a gloved three fingered hand. He helps you up off of the floor, and you both walk out of the room together. By now you’re convinced, there’s too much evidence. You’re surprised Dib was right, but the only thing on your mind at this point is getting Zim to trust you. You want nothing more than for Zim to trust you. God you don’t even know if he’s gay or anything. Can aliens even be gay? You have no idea. Oh well, better to keep trying and get rejected than to give up and never know. He leads you to the kitchen and gestures for you to sit at the table. 

“Do you… want anything to drink? Lemonade, soda, whatever else it is you humans drink.” He asks. You eye his “humans” comment with a smirk. 

“Soda sounds fine, what were we going to study?” You respond, digging into your backpack. He shifts uncomfortably, reaching up and grabbing a nondescript bottle of cola. He doesn’t answer the question about studying which puts you on edge. If he didn’t really want to study, then why did he bring you here? You pull out your sketchbook and flip to a new page, you start doodling nothing in particular. Zim turns back to you with the soda in hand but freezes and watches you instead, eyes wide and intrigued. You notice and feel your face burning. Of course, you had started to draw Zim. He looked impressed, and ended up in the chair next to yours, slowly and periodically scooting it closer. His cheeks were flushed pink, and you had never seen him so calm and quiet. 

“You’re really good at that…” He says quietly. Your heart thumps in your chest as his shoulder bumps yours, you accidentally flip back the pages to reveal a drawing of Zim surrounded by hearts. You nearly scream, but your breath catches in your throat.

“What are those?” Zim asks curiously. Your blush deepens and you try to force the words out.

“They’re…. H-hearts?” you say as more of a question. He furrows his lack of eyebrows.

“Hearts? They don’t look like hearts. What do they mean?” He questions further.

“... Love.” You respond. His face goes blank, and his cheeks flush deeper.

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“So you….”

“I have a crush on you, yes.” you admit softly. He looks tense, completely unmoving next to you. He spends several minutes frozen like this, causing you to become increasingly more anxious. 

“I can’t do this.” You finally say, shaking. You start to get up when you feel a slender gloved hand grip your arm, loose enough that you could walk away, but you can feel the desperation. Zim’s eyes begin to quiver.

“No, _I_ can’t do this. You… agh what am I doing. You were right! I’m not human!” He yells, clearly conflicted. He slaps a hand over his mouth, and you can see the fear in his eyes. You reach towards him but he flinches away.

“Zim, I’m not going to hurt you. I… I just want to comfort you. I kind of want to… see you.” You tell him. He leans into your touch and you place your hand on his shoulder. You both lower yourselves onto the tile floor, tears welling up in his eyes. He carefully removes his contact lenses to reveal his deep maroon eyes. Your own eyes widen, and he takes off his wig, his antennae slithering out from under the hairpiece and twitching curiously. You stare at him warmly and in awe, and he waits for you to do something, anything. You pull him close into a firm hug, and he mirrors you hesitantly. He openly cries, and you rub his back gently. 

“Hey, hey it’s ok Zim. I think you’re amazing.” You tell him gently. He backs away a bit and scans your face, searching for sincerity. You wipe the tears from his cheek and plant a small kiss. He blushes, becoming flustered. 

“W-why don’t you hate me like that… that... Dib.” He asks solemnly. 

“Zim, why would I-”

“DIB!!!” Zim jumps up angrily, antennae twitching and pressed down against his head.

‘Woah Zim, calm down. I know h- oh. OH.” You realize that Dib is at the window behind you, with a camera.

“HA HAHA!!! I CAUGHT YOU ZIM! I GOT YOU ON CAMERA, NOT ONLY OUT OF COSTUME, BUT _CRYING LIKE A LITTLE BABY TOO!!!!_ ” Dib taunts loudly. You cringe at his loud voice and jump up on the counter, grabbing Dib by the collar of his shirt through the open window. You take his camera and throw it to Zim, who throws it to the ground, smashing it. You release Dib’s shirt and he runs off yelling. The adrenaline that had been pumping through your veins moments ago suddenly drained. You sit on the ground and slump to the side, still exhausted from that morning. You stare fondly into the short invader’s eyes, and he smiles back at you, cheeks tinged pink. He kneels by the camera’s wreckage and picks out the still intact SIM card. He pockets it and sits on the floor next to you. You lay your head on his shoulder, and he doesn’t back away. You sigh deeply and in a moment of fleeting courage, he steals a kiss. You blush and smile wide. 

“I… I learned that from spying on my Tallest. Not sure if it means the same thing here, but it pretty much means I like you too.” Zim explains, eyes glued to the floor. You giggle and smile at him. 

“Don’t worry, it does.” You say as you lean in for another kiss, wrapping your arms around him. Who knew one day you’d fall in love with an alien?


End file.
